Intersection improvements starting Monday

North City readers of Historic City News have been anxiously awaiting the start of construction for a solution to the San Marco Avenue (SR A1A/SR 5A), May Street (SR A1A) and West San Carlos Avenue intersection — arguably one of the most poorly designed high-traffic intersections in the City of St Augustine.

Although that wait is over, with construction set to begin during the coming week, don’t put away your Alka Seltzer bottle just yet. Now starts the two-phase project; construction of the new intersection (scheduled to be operational in summer 2018) followed by a drainage project (expected to be complete in summer 2019).

• The intersection improvement project includes the reconfiguration and widening of the existing San Marco Avenue and May Street intersection and widens it to include West San Carlos Avenue. The addition of dedicated right and left turn lanes, median modifications, synchronized traffic signals, sidewalks, shared bicycle lanes and HAWK (High-intensity Activated crossWalK) pedestrian signals will contribute to better traffic flow in addition to increased bicyclist and pedestrian safety in the area.
• The project also includes the replacement of an approximate quarter-mile of storm water pipe on May Street from San Marco Avenue to the Hospital Creek Bridge, east of Magnolia Avenue.

The combined cost for both projects is $9.2 million. Petticoat-Schmitt Civil Contractors, Inc. is the Construction Contractor.

Crews will begin mobilizing for the intersection project on Monday, October 30.

Should lane closures be required, they are restricted to between the hours of 9:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. daily.